Trick or Treat?

In my opinion, the difference between game 3 and 4 was the Bulls' effort and energy on the defensive end. In game 3, the Bulls' stifling D not only held JJ/J.Craw to 17 points combined (2 in the second half) but it also led to easy buckets at the other end. DRose putting up a career high 44 points doesn't hurt either, but it seemed it wouldn't matter either way as the Hawks shot themselves out of the game. The Bulls are hard to stop when they are shooting lights out (Korver had 11 points and 3-for-4 behind the arc), cleaning up the glass (+9), and playing lock down defense. The Bulls' energy was high from the get-go as Larry Drew called a timeout :49 into the game after 2 quick Bulls buckets. Derrick set the tone early by knocking down jumpers, aggressively getting to the rim, and getting to the free throw line. Besides another good game from Teague on the offensive end, the Hawks clearly had nothing to look dejected throughout the game and were never in it from the beginning. They are notorious for mailing it in when they get behind early during the regular season.

Game 4 was a different story. Neither team was able to pull away early, but when the Hawks started out hitting 7 out of their first 9 shots you knew it was going to be a rough game. Derrick was able to get to the rim and the free throw line, but he wasn't knocking it down from outside. As good as the Hawks were hitting from the outside, the Hawks were getting more points in the painted area than they have all series. That can be attributed by the smarter play by Josh Smith. He still took some awful shots (you could hear groans from the crowd), but he kept those down to a minimum. Instead he was aggressive taking the ball inside and making good interior passes for easy baskets. JJ was back to his old self filling up the bucket, Horford was getting easy baskets, and Teague was also getting his own shots at the rim (3 of the Hawks starters had 20+ points, eww). Even with all that going on, and the Bulls shooting poor from the field (Korver stunk up the joint), the Bulls were still in the game going into the last 4 minutes. The Hawks ended the game on a 16-4 run which was marred by DRose taking some rough shots (almost all of them), Bennett Salvatore missing a foul on Rose from behind the arc, and Thibs doing his best VDN impression by losing track on how many timeouts he had left. The Hawks quickness and energy down the stretch was higher than the Bulls and it looks like everyone but DRose was cashed (even though he played every minute in the 2nd half). It sucks because maybe if DRose had some offensive help from someone else than Boozer (read that again), the Bulls win this game. Deng had maybe his worst game of the series (-9), Noah was nullified, and Korver was out of HotSauce. Taj had a decent game with 9 points, 4 blocks, and 2 steals (awesome open court steal from Teague) in 13 minutes. Oddly he also had 0 rebounds in those 13 minutes he played. Omerica had his best game of the series also playing 13 minutes scoring 3 points, grabbing 8 boards, and 2 blocks. Boozer had a good night on the offensive end as he was hitting his jumper for most of the night and had a big play to get the Bulls final lead of the night at 78-76. It sucks that the Bulls have to go back to Atlanta but I'm not hitting the panic button yet. The Bulls had a mediocre game and the Hawks over achieved. Josh Smith can't keep playing at a high (intelligent) level and I expect Thibs to make sure the lapses on the defensive end don't happen Tuesday night. Hopefully DRose won't have to put up 30+ shots again.